From the Mail & Guardian, 31 May 2000

Crowds flock to Zim traditional healers

Zimbabwe's traditional healers claim to have developed a remedy to fight Aids, attracting many HIV-positive people who cannot afford Western medicine.

10km from Chivu, a rutted road leads across the deserted Midlands region in central Zimbabwe, to the hut of Kadenge, a traditional healer who claims he can cure all ills including Aids. In this cattle-raising region, the healer examines people from surrounding villages, attracted by the convenience and low cost compared with the practioners of western medicine, who are too expensive for many Zimbabweans.

"We are close to the people," said the wrinkled healer Kadenge. "We know what their needs and problems are. We are connected to the spirits of their ancestors." Professing the Mwari cult, based on animist beliefs, the N'anga healers consult the spirits via the ancestors, carry out divination from bones or roots and exorcism, and then prescribe treatment. Kadenge, 57, said his powers were revealed to him when he was an adolescent, accompanied by some anti-social behaviour. At 16, he says, he was initiated, receiving his powers from two types of spirit, the protective "midzimu" inherited from the ancestors and the "shave", foreigners who never had a proper burial. "The spirits and the plants enable me to cure everything, from colds to Aids," he said.

In Zimbabwe the HIV infection rate is one of the highest in the world - one out of four in a total population of 12,5 million - and few can afford to pay for the treatments developed by western drug companies. Kwenda, 23, her husband Shechek and their three-year-old daughter Resi walked 20km to consult Kadenge. All three are HIV-positive. "The N'anga give us potions made with plants and advise us on what to eat to fight against the evil spirits that want our death," said the frail young woman. She said she felt "much stronger" since starting the treatment six months ago. Accused of being charlatans by western-trained doctors, the healers of the Zimbabwe National Association of Traditional Healers (ZINATHA) claim they have truly developed a remedy to fight Aids. They use the rich, traditional panoply of local herbs, pointing to a remedy for skin cancer developed from the Kigelia africana tree. "We have the same superiority on conventional medicine as far as Aids is concerned," Kadenge claimed.

From the Insider (Zimb), 31 May 2000

MDC Could Still Spring A Surprise

By Staff Writer

Harare - With the electorate having been intimidated through the concerted violence that has left more than 20 people dead, the odds are against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by former trade Unionist Morgan Tsvangirai. But some political observers still believe that the nine-month-old party still has a chance of winning a sizeable number of seats. They say if it does not win an outright majority, it will win at least enough seats to prevent ZANU-PF from having a two-thirds majority which will enable it to make major changes to the constitution willy-nilly.

While its overt infrastructure has literally been torn to pieces through the intimidation and killing of some of its supporters, the party is likely to ride the day because the ZANU-PF campaign is likely to backfire on the party. MDC supporters are wishing that it wins as many as 90 seats so that it will be difficult to rig the results. Party officials wish it wins 100 seats or more to have a two-thirds majority. But political watchers say it is dangerous for any African country to have this turnaround. They say if the MDC wins a two-thirds majority, it will just go the way the Movement for Multi-party Democracy went in Zambia. It has been in power for nearly two decades but it has virtually changed nothing.

Instead, unemployment has been on the increase. "In Africa you don't need a party that is too strong. Parties should form coalitions to form governments so that there are checks and balances," says a Kenyan professor who has taught at both the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo and Africa University in Mutare. At the moment, there appears to be no coalitions on line. The two major contenders, ZANU-PF and the MDC, seem to be going it alone.

While some of those who have written off the MDC are looking at things like its manifesto, its economic policies, the calibre of its leadership and so on, those who believe it has a chance of upsetting the results say it is likely to win by default. ZANU-PF now has nothing to offer except continued suffering.

According to a survey by the Helen Suzman Foundation conducted just before the national referendum 68 percent of the participants said their lives had become worse over the past five years. Only 17 percent said it had become better. Among ZANU-PF supporters, the percentage was slightly lower at 62 percent. The same survey indicated that 63 percent did not believe their lives would improve in the next five years, 55 percent of them ZANU-PF supporters.

Observers are drawing a lot of parallels between next month's elections and those of 1980 which ushered the country's independence. In 1980 all the odds were against ZANU-PF. Observers even called on the party to form a coalition with ZAPU, but it decided to go it alone, to prove its own strength. The party did not have any newspaper supporting it except the Catholic owned weekly Moto, which had been banned by the Ian Smith regime in 1974. The ban was lifted with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement in December 1979 and it resumed publication in January 1980. Because of its coverage of ZANU-PF and ZAPU, its presses at Gweru, the Midlands capital, were bombed in February, just two weeks before the elections.

ZANU-PF could not even find office accommodation in town. It was accommodated by Solomon Tawengwa at his Machipisa Hotel in Highfield. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who was Prime Minister, on the other hand, had all the state machinery behind him: the Rhodesian army, his own army named Pfumo Revanhu (Spear of the People), his own intelligence (Ziso Revanhu), newspapers like The Herald and The Chronicle as well as his own Drums of Zimbabwe, radio and television. All this state machinery is now behind Mugabe. ZANU-PF also has its own weekly People's Voice and a magazine, Zimbabwe News. The MDC does not have a paper of its own. It relies on independent newspapers such as the Daily News, The Financial Gazette, the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard.

Just like in 1980, an art gallery below the offices of the Daily News was destroyed in a bomb attack on April 22. Most people believe the bomb was aimed at the Daily News. Despite all odds being against ZANU-PF in 1980, it won 57 of the 80 seats reserved for blacks then. These were enough to enable Mugabe to form a government in the 100 member house where 20 seats were reserved for whites but he invited Joshua Nkomo to join him adding Nkomo's 20 seats to the ruling coalition.

Despite the intimidation, observers believe the MDC can spring a similar surprise. They argue that people simply want change and the MDC is providing the only viable avenue for change. Though it is the latest party to come onto the scene, the MDC has overshadowed all other opposition parties. Margaret Dongo's Zimbabwe Union for Democrats, once the strongest contender before the formation of MDC, is now in the shadows. Only Dongo herself remains visible. It has formed an alliance with Ndabaningi Sithole's ZANU-Ndonga, a political spent force whose only base of support has been Chipinge, Sithole's birthplace. The coalition includes another political spent force the United Parties and the little known Liberal Party which claims to have support in Matebeleland but has already been rocked by a split. The other opposition parties have been discredited.

Chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, Thoko Matshe has publicly stated that some of the smaller opposition parties are being sponsored by the ruling ZANU-PF to cause confusion. She named the Democratic Party, the Zimbabwe People's Democratic Party and the National Democratic Union.

Intimidation by the ruling party either through war veterans or its own party supporters, only serves to harden people against the ruling party, observers say. John Makumbe of the University of Zimbabwe says the middle of the roader and people normally sitting on the fence have been disgusted by ZANU-PF's viciousness and disregard for the law. This could turn out to be in favour of the MDC. He says all the MDC has to do is convince the voter that his or her vote is secret. "It has to sell the fact that the vote is secret. You can still dance ZANU-PF and vote MDC. The important thing is that you must stay alive. If you get killed you cannot vote. If ZANU-PF demands MDC T- shirts give them to the party. The T-shirts do not vote."

Makumbe also argued that just like in the referendum for the national constitution, ZANU-PF had done some excellent campaigning for the MDC. While it was a foregone conclusion that the MDC would sweep the urban seats, it was difficult to gauge the impact in rural areas. But he argues that the national referendum's No vote was not won through the media, both radio and television or through newspapers, but through word of mouth campaigns. Civil servants and teachers were the best campaigners for the MDC as they were influential people in rural areas, hence the ruling party's concerted effort to discredit them.

Reports say some 250 schools have so far been closed, a thing that is likely to incense parents as most of the pupils whose education has been disrupted are not eligible to vote. Observers also argue that in the coming elections the most critical voter is the person voting for the first time, the "born-frees". They are young, have no jobs and no future. They have no obligation to ZANU-PF. They cannot be intimidated by the fact that the party waged the struggle that liberated the country. They had not been born yet. They cannot be accused of being sell-outs. This voter is reported to be solidly behind the MDC.

Others say, whoever wins, the politics of Zimbabwe will never be the same. For the first time, the country will have a viable opposition. Alfred Nhema also of the University of Zimbabwe is said to have told a seminar hosted by the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town that what was happening in Zimbabwe was a second revolution in which civil society was reasserting itself. He said this was being ignored by the media which tried to make race the issue rather than a political struggle by indigenous Zimbabweans themselves. He said for the first time in the history of Zimbabwe, "we are going to have an official opposition, something we never had in 20 years of post-liberation. Zimbabwe will be better off as a nation".

But there are also fears that the country could plunge into a constitutional crisis. An MDC victory no matter how small will cause a constitutional crisis. Although Mugabe has the right to appoint 30 members of the house, the MDC argues that if he does so after losing the elected seats, this could be a recipe for chaos. He will not be able to stop the people's anger. They prefer cohabitation. In that event the MDC will form the government while Mugabe remains president to finish his term in 2002.

Mugabe is not likely to swallow this as he will literally have crossed the floor. Judging by Mugabe's reaction to the referendum, he is out for an outright victory, even at the expense of his own people. Besides President Mugabe has publicly stated that the MDC will never form a government in this country, never ever, even if he dies. "Ndingakupikirei ndinomuka chidhoma" (lit. I swear to you I will turn into a ghost (to haunt MDC).

Some observers say even if the MDC losses but gains control of the towns, it will have won the elections. Because of the extended family system, though losing much of its significance because of economic hardship, the observers say, you can't say you are ruling the country without control of the towns.